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Manuscript/Mixed Material Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner outlining the president's belief that the dependents of black and white soldiers should be treated equally, 19 May 1864.

About this Item

Title

  • Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner outlining the president's belief that the dependents of black and white soldiers should be treated equally, 19 May 1864.

Created / Published

  • 19 May 1864

Headings

  • -  African Americans
  • -  Pensions
  • -  Presidents
  • -  Army officers
  • -  Civil War, 1861-1865
  • -  Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865)
  • -  Booth, Lionel F
  • -  Booth, Mary Elizabeth Wayt
  • -  Fort Pillow (Tenn.)
  • -  Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)
  • -  Manuscripts

Genre

  • Manuscripts

Notes

  • -  Reproduction number: A59 (color slide)
  • -  On May 19, 1864, Mary Elizabeth Wayt Booth (1843-1904) visited President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) at the White House, then known as the Executive Mansion. Booth’s husband, Major Lionel F. Booth (ca. 1838-1864), a white officer in the 6th Regiment Heavy Artillery, United States Colored Troops, had been killed by a Confederate sharpshooter on the morning of April 12, 1864, during the Battle of Fort Pillow near Memphis, Tennessee. After the fort fell, Confederate forces under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) massacred many African American soldiers when they tried to surrender. The following month, Mary Booth urged President Lincoln to act on behalf of the widows and children of the formerly enslaved African American soldiers in her husband’s regiment, who could not qualify for dependents’ pensions because their marriages lacked legal standing. Lincoln agreed with Booth that these “widows and children in fact” should “be placed in law, the same as if their marriages were legal.” With this letter, Lincoln directed Booth to Charles Sumner (1811-1874), knowing the senator from Massachusetts would be sympathetic to the cause of equal compensation. Whether due to the intervention of Booth or Sumner, not long afterwards, Section 14 of a supplement to the July 14, 1862 pension act, approved by Congress on July 4, 1864, allowed for alternative proof of marriage between enslaved persons. (See Chapter 247, 38 Congress, Public Law 38-247, 13 Stat 347, Statutes at Large, p. 389; https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044103137113?urlappend=;seq=423;ownerid=27021597764569134-457. External) Mary Elizabeth Wayt Booth faced her own challenges in securing a widow’s pension because her husband apparently served under the alias of “Lionel F. Booth.” Pension records held by the National Archives record his true name as George H. Lanning. Mary Elizabeth Wayt Booth, or “Lizzie Lanning,” as she signed some documents, thus had to prove the legality of her own marriage and pension eligibility. In 1879, she married Herman Hill, and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, until her death in 1904.
  • -  [Record updated, May 2022. Long available online, the previous note for this item erroneously identified Lionel F. Booth as an African American soldier. Subsequent research further revealed Major Booth’s alias, his widow’s successful pension application (application 53,269; certificate 61,248, issued December 12, 1865), and Mary Elizabeth Wayt Lanning (Booth) Hill’s life dates. The 6th Regiment Heavy Artillery was later part of the 11th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (New), under which Major Booth’s compiled military service record is filed.]

Source Collection

  • Abraham Lincoln Papers

Repository

  • Manuscript Division

Online Format

  • pdf
  • image

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Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner outlining the president's belief that the dependents of black and white soldiers should be treated equally, 19 May. 19 May, 1864. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.079/.

APA citation style:

(1864) Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner outlining the president's belief that the dependents of black and white soldiers should be treated equally, 19 May. 19 May. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.079/.

MLA citation style:

Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Charles Sumner outlining the president's belief that the dependents of black and white soldiers should be treated equally, 19 May. 19 May, 1864. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mcc.079/>.